Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1057

An Incorrigible Fanatic

William Wilberforce told Parliament that the more his opponents slandered him, the more he was sure he was winning.

William Wilberforce, Britain’s leading anti-slavery campaigner, was accused of ‘fanaticism’ for his refusal to accept the prevailing customs of the day. But as he warned Parliament, such jibes only made him more determined to fight on.

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Picture: By John Simpson (1782–1847), Art Institute of Chicago, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1058

The Winter Queen

Conspiracies and dynastic expectations swirled around James I’s daughter from the age of nine.

When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, he brought his family to London, including a seven-year-old daughter named Elizabeth. Just two years later, she was the unwitting focus of a traitorous plot to assassinate her father and put England back under the dominion of Continental Europe.

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Picture: By Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) or his circle, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1059

Filioque

It started as an honest mistake, became a diplomatic standoff, and brought down an Empire.

In 680, English bishops gathered at Hatfield sent Pope Agatho a signed copy the Creed in which they declared their belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father ‘and the Son’. They would have been horrified to learn that this little phrase was not in the original. Unfortunately, some at Rome had invested so much of their credibility in it that they were prepared to go to any lengths to save face — even if it meant bringing down the Empire.

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Picture: © Сайт Новгородской епархии (website of the Eparchy of Velikiy Novgorod). Used with permission.. Source.

1060

The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

Dr Watson is looking for rooms in London, and an old colleague suggests someone who might be able to help him.

Dr Watson, an army surgeon invalided out of the Royal Berkshire Regiment in the Second Afghan War (1878-1880), is looking for rooms in London. Fortunately, he runs into young Stamford, a colleague from his days at Barts, and Stamford knows someone wanting a flatmate to go halves on the rent at 221B, Baker Street.

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Picture: By Henry Treffry Dunn (1838-1899), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1061

Judicial Iniquity

John Stuart Mill reminds us that governments and the courts must never be allowed to criminalise matters of belief or opinion.

We often see those in power trying to use the courts to silence views they find objectionable, rather than tolerate them or engage with them. But Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill recalled that many centuries ago, such supposedly high-minded legislation resulted in one of history’s worst miscarriages of justice – the execution of Socrates.

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Picture: By William Blake (1757-1827), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1062

The Bashful Young Gentleman

Charles Dickens sketches for us the shyly ingratiating youth who gets himself in a tangle in the presence of Beauty.

Charles Dickens’s ‘Sketches’ is a collection of character portraits in words, supposedly written for young ladies to prepare them for going about in society. His word-painting is of such dexterity that bashful young gentlemen everywhere will raise their hats to him - if they haven’t left them behind in the street.

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Picture: By William Beechey (1753-1839), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.